Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0886972892528
Label: Columbia/ Red Ink
Manufacturer: Columbia/ Red Ink
MPN: 28925
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Columbia/ Red Ink
Release Date: 2008-06-03
Studio: Columbia/ Red Ink

We Started Nothing is the debut album from The Ting Tings. Tipped in the top three of the BBC's Sound of 2008 poll at the beginning of the year, seemingly they have much to prove. However, The Ting Tings aren't about proving themselves; they are simply here to enjoy it. Making great British pop music - their way - is what they're about. Born of a desire to employ the DIY ethic from day one - Katie White and Jules De Martino escaped the industry trappings they once experienced in a previous band and went back to basics as a duo. They stripped back everything they thought they both knew about making music and the industry that revolved around every note.

We Started Nothing is a debut album brimming with intuitive pop noise. It's pure garage-pop and once heard will in-bed itself into your subconscious for many days, weeks, months to come. Snappy choruses trade off against angular gutar work, whip smart drumming and a succession of loops that they create live with the use of delay pedals.
The debut album by Salford's The Ting Tings comes hot on the heels of their No.1 single "That's Not My Name", a nugget of pop gold that comes on like a genetic splicing of Toni Basil's "Micky" and The Knack's "My Sharona". The bulk of We Started Nothing follows a similar formula, navigating a path between the smart, angular indie of CSS, Bonde Do Role, et al and the pop mainstream. Here and there, they pull it off perfectly: the stutter-rap of "Fruit Machine" sees vocalist Katie White leading on some poor sap with sultry charisma and lip-gloss sass, while the excellent "Shut Up and Let Me Go" is snappy dance-punk in the spirit of Blondie's "Rapture" or Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love". Elsewhere, they branch out with mixed results. "We Walk" builds from quiet flourishes of piano into a surprisingly steely manifesto: "Smash the rest up/Burn it down/Put us in the corner cause we're into ideas", sneers White. Rather less good is "Traffic Light", a light, jazzy number that employs a number of somewhat forced driving metaphors to describe a relationship hit the skids. Still, it's a debut with promise, and a string of good singles is nothing to be sniffed at. -–Louis Pattison

Customer Rating:
Summary: Ting Tings
Comment: The album has a great sound, bringing the 80's style back into things. Enjoyable to listen all the way through.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable pop
Comment: Like others have said, this isn't normally my sort of thing. On a first listen the Ting Ting's turned my stomach. Then you hear a few of their songs a couple of times and annoyingly find that you're starting to like them. That's Not my Name is a classic pop tune that builds and adds layers as it goes on. Real foot tapping stuff.
I don't really know if I'm supposed to admit to liking it, so it's a bit of a guilty secret that you drop in to conversation with your friends and try to see if they like it before you admit that you do. I bet they've all got a copy at home though.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Ting Tings
Comment: This is not usually my type of music its slightly too poppy for me but going on a recommendation from a friend i picked up a copy. I actually think its pretty good. A few tracks stand out but the rest are by no means weak. I'm reminded of peaches or the kills but with a more poppy side. They get an extra star from being from salford!

Interesting beats and bitchy, sometimes snarly vocals. Some tracks are very infectious.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: It's all about Fun
Comment: Sometimes you want Beethoven, Bob Dylan, Beatles, and sometimes you just want the Ting Tings. This is just fun, poppy, feel-good, guilty pleasure music. It's not meant to make a deep statement, make you think, bowl you over with symbolic lyrics. But it sure is catchy. I can listen to these songs over and over again and have a great time every time.

Great job, Ting Tings. Mission accomplished: you've got me bopping my head up and down and I've got a smile from ear to ear.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: A guilty pleasure Ting
Comment: This is a fun, funky and successful debut from the hot UK group with the onomatopoeic name. All the songs are original material, written and composed by the fresh and fabulous duo, and it's a great pity that the album is so short.

Turn on the radio at any time of the day, and before long you're probably going to hear either of the two really big singles from this album, or both of them. The single "Shut Up and Let Me Go" recently won the MTV Video Music Award for "Best UK Video", the other hot single being "That's Not My Name". "Great DJ" is yet another single, with "Be the One" scheduled for release soon. I recently received some PepsiStuff Points to buy an MP3 download from Amazon, and I had no hesitation in picking "Shut Up and Let Me Go"

Most of the tracks are cool, catchy and current, and although you can't honestly say that the lyrics are either deep or profound, you'll remember the infectious beats and at least you'll be able to sing along while you're dancing.

Fans of Brit pop will enjoy this album, but there are a couple of tracks that were just a little too trippy for my liking. Other than the singles mentioned above, you should also try "Keep Your Head" and "We Walk".

Buy the singles, if not the album, and prepare to shake your groove Ting.






Amanda Richards, September 23, 2008

---